Announcing Our New E-book: THE Big IDEA: Global Spread of Affordable Housing
About a year ago, NextBillion teamed up with one of our Content Partners, Ashoka, for a Twitter chat. Our mission: Unearth the overlapping challenges and the market solutions to affordable housing for the world’s low-income consumers and producers. We were soon buried in data. The discussion was lively, and as much as we tried to […]
Job and partnership opportunities with an evolving organisation – The Gatsby Charitable Foundation
The Gatsby Charitable Foundation is expanding as part of our changing strategy in Africa and our new approach to sector development, and we invite people to explore job and partnership opportunities with us. The Gatsby Charitable Foundation is a grant-making trust set-up by David Sainsbury – former finance director and chairman of J. Sainsbury plc. […]
iOnPoverty
Wall Street is facing a recruiting problem, reports the New York Times. The latest reminder that big banks are corrosive for careers of conscience comes from a NY Times op-ed piece by former Goldman Sachs executive Greg Smith who sharply describes a “toxic and destructive” workplace. Covet a career building economic opportunity and justice? Want […]
IBLF – Expert Insight: Sir Stuart Rose, former Chairman, M&S
IBLF – Expert Insight: Sir Stuart Rose, former Chairman, M&S from Business Fights Poverty on Vimeo. “A sustainable business can be a responsible business and also a profitable business,” insists Sir Stuart Rose, former CEO and Chairman of leading retailer Marks & Spencer, in this dialogue with IBLF’s Shivvy Jervis. Sir Stuart launched a landmark […]
IBLF – Expert Insight: Sir Stuart Rose, former Chairman, M&S
IBLF – Expert Insight: Sir Stuart Rose, former Chairman, M&S from Business Fights Poverty on Vimeo. “A sustainable business can be a responsible business and also a profitable business,” insists Sir Stuart Rose, former CEO and Chairman of leading retailer Marks & Spencer, in this dialogue with IBLF’s Shivvy Jervis. Sir Stuart launched a landmark […]
The BoP Approach: Sinner or Savior?
Today several of the world’s largest corporations – including Hewlett Packard, SK Johnson and Unilever – are engaging with the so-called ‘bottom of the pyramid’, becoming key players in global development by selling products to improve health, nutrition and overall well-being in the rural markets of developing countries. Meanwhile development donors like DfID champion large […]
Trends and Results in Private Sector Development Continued
The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) organised a Seminar on trends and results in private sector development (PSD), in January 2012. It focused on what we are learning about results and in part on the DCED Standard for results measurement. There were around 100 participants from 32 countries, representing 54 different organisations, field programmes […]
Manufacturing Still Matters
In an interview for Making It Magazine, Charles Arthur and Michele Clara spoke to popular economist, Ha-Joon Chang, about the race to the bottom, going green and the Occupy movement. You took part in a recent Economist magazine online debate on the relevance of manufacturing, so let’s start with a simple question: Does industry still […]
Meet Chris Markl: Founder, Kourage Athletics
BFP:What do you do? CM: I’m the Founder of Kourage Athletics: Kenya’s Running Brand – We create athletic apparel that is 100% African & 100% Ethical from design through distribution. Our garments are sold globally with revenues reinvested into Kenya. We seek to leverage the storied tradition of Kenyan runners to inject foreign revenue & […]
Making Choices
Reach even more than 12,000 rural Bangladeshi women? Boost financial return to investors? Or operate with lower capital requirements? These were just some of the choices facing new investors in Jita, in mid 2012. Jita, launched in December as a Bangladeshi company, is one of many social enterprises demonstrating that commercial return and social impact […]
The Business Case for Financial Capability and Why it Matters
In the wake of the mortgage crisis in developed countries, and separate lending crises in other countries like India, there is a growing level of attention being paid to the issue of consumers’ capabilities to engage with the financial sector. Certainly, as “Bridging the Gap: The Business Case for Financial Capability” shows, access to finance […]
A Responsibility and a Market: Why Danone May Represent the Future of BoP Business
NextBillion.net, Senior Strategist Saatchi and Saatchi The “future of BOP business” is a sweeping, flashy claim. Yet Danone’s strategy appears to be different for all the right, non-flashy reasons. A strict focus on unit economics, clear understanding of the business’ role in social impact, and most of all, direct links between base of the pyramid […]
Survival of the Fittest
IBLF – Expert Insight: Steve Almond, Chairman of Deloitte
IBLF – Expert Insight: Steve Almond, Chairman of Deloitte from Business Fights Poverty on Vimeo. “The young talent of today aren’t going to be inspired by reading banners on the intranet or seeing logos on the company note paper. They want to see their CEO leading by example.” Deloitte’s Chairman Steve Almond spoke to IBLF’s […]
2012 Event Series: Strengthening local supply chain opportunities in the extractives sector
2012 Series: Enhancing Local Content
Trends and Results in Private Sector Development
The Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) organised a Seminar on trends and results in private sector development (PSD), in January 2012. It focused on what we are learning about results – since those are now so much in demand: how to work out the logic of the programme, how to monitor progress and how […]
Building Business Strategies for Development Impact in Africa
For nearly 100 years, Africa has been a key driver of our business success. Almost 40 per cent of our assets remain in South Africa. Three of our seven main business groups (platinum, iron ore and thermal coal) and two of our key associates (diamonds and manganese) operate out of southern Africa. These are all […]
Financial Exclusion #FirstWorldProblem?
13.5 million people in the UK live in poverty, with over 1 million without access to bank accounts (4% of Britain’s population) and a further 8 million (15%) underbanked – that’s a lot of people who have to find a way to survive in the 6th richest country in the world. Recognising this reality, Women […]
World Business and Development Awards 2012
Do you have a successful inclusive business model that is both commercially successful, and is contributing to development? The International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have just launched a call for nominations for their World Business and Development Awards 2012. The Awards demonstrate […]